岡の辺の里のあるじを尋ぬれば
人は答へず山おろしの風
人は答へず山おろしの風
- Roma-ji
-
Oka no be no sato no aruji o tazunureba hito wa kotaezu yamaoroshi no kaze
- English Translation
-
Near the hillside slope,
when I seek the master of
the village there,
no one answers me at all—
only the wind down the mountain.
- Meaning
- When I seek out the master of the village by the hill, no one answers—only the wind blowing down from the mountain.
- Commentary
-
Book Seventeen Miscellaneous Poems II 1675
Headnote: "Topic unknown."
This is the first poem of a sequence on old fields and villages. Seeking the master of the village by the hill, the poet finds no one to answer, only the wind blowing down from the mountain. The headnote gives the topic as unknown and records nothing of the circumstances.
The author, "Saki no Daisōjō Jien," was a son of Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi and a younger brother of Kujō Kanezane. He served four times as Tendai Abbot and wrote the historical treatise Gukanshō.
The first line, "oka no be no," means "by the hill."
The second line, "sato no aruji o," means "the master of the village."
The third line, "tazunureba," means "when I seek him out." The realis form with "ba" expresses a settled condition.
The fourth line, "hito wa kotaezu," means "no one answers." The poem breaks here after the fourth line. Like "toedo kotaenu" in 1595 in this book, it sings of the loneliness of finding no one to answer.
The last line, "yamaoroshi no kaze," ends in a noun, setting in place of a human answer the wind blowing down the mountain. Taking up the longing for the past in the preceding sequence, it depicts a village whose master is gone.
- Author
- Jien
- Source
- Shin Kokin Wakashu
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Akekure wa mukashi o nomi zo shinobugusa hazue no tsuyu ni sode nurashitsutsu
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Furuhata no soba no tatsu ki ni iru hato no tomo yobu koe no sugoki yūgure